Diversity is an important issue for any modern business, but it’s not enough to simply hire people of different nationalities, races, genders, and sexual orientations. Everyone needs to feel welcome, safe, and free to be themselves in the workplace. If you focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in your workplace, your business’s culture and bottom line will benefit.
6 tips for creating an inclusive workplace culture.
- Create an inclusion committee
Your efforts to include people should not be managed by a single person, this could result in a single point of view that may overlook certain aspects of inclusivity.
Form a committee of employees from various departments who can share their experiences and perspectives to help develop a well-rounded picture of what an inclusive workplace looks like.
The committee should then set goals for new hires and employee retention, which they would then report to the organization’s management team, presenting its opinions and goals for approval.
- Bring employees together.
Your company will undoubtedly have several departments, however try to avoid silos as they can prevent employees from interacting with one another and not contributing to a diverse and inclusive company culture.
When attempting to promote a more inclusive workplace culture, you should ideally foster positive cross-departmental collaboration throughout your organisation.
How are you able to do this? Dependent on the size of your organisation, a simple method could be to hold regular employee events. This does not have to break the bank, it could be a catered lunch, a group happy hour, or a coffee break designed to get people talking and working together.
If you have a team activity budget, you could bring together team members from various departments for company retreats and team-building activities to celebrate their diversity and differences.
- Get buy-in from your Leadership Team
Inclusivity begins at the top, and you must ensure that the leadership team understands the importance of DEI within the workplace. The leadership team should assist implementing these initiatives and policies across the company.
- Get buy-in from your employees
Listen! Your team is most likely full of ideas about workplace inclusivity that they’d love to share with you. Having an open-door policy when it comes to inclusivity initiatives and ideas, will improve the overall direction of the company.
You may discover that certain inclusion initiatives you are implementing are ineffective. This is valuable insight that you’ll need if you’re going to make improvements. On the contrary, if your employees appreciate your inclusiveness efforts, you should be aware of this as you can continue to run similar events.
For this to work, your employees must feel comfortable approaching your leadership team with their concerns and feelings. Make it clear during the onboarding process that there is an open-door policy and make it a point to ask for feedback from the entire team on a regular basis, which could be done through anonymous feedback forms and surveys.
- Remuneration Packages
While creating an inclusive culture throughout your business, you must assess if the benefits you are providing consider the diverse needs of your workforce. Employee perks policies should attempt to give fair benefits based on the needs of a diverse workforce. Some benefits you could include, maternity and paternity leave, flexible working arrangements, discounts on gym memberships.
- Create Inclusion Goals
To create a more inclusive corporate environment, you must first identify your goals for inclusion within the business. Every organisation should set time-bound and quantifiable objectives for these initiatives. Decide how your organisation will measure inclusiveness and how your pursuit of it will influence the company overall, including the bottom line, branding, and mission.
A goos start is to audit all the company’s processes involving the employees you employ. This covers recruitment, onboarding, training, and retention. This helps identify any areas which may need improvement.
To conclude, inclusion is important in today’s work environment. Making diverse hiring is no longer sufficient. With inclusive practices, you must embrace your team’s diversity and make them feel appreciated and seen.
There is no longer a one-size-fits-all strategy to running a business. You can’t treat every employee the same and assume that they have the same social, economic, and personal demands.
Understanding the six recommendations given above will allow you to build a more inclusive workplace culture, which will enhance the productivity of your employees and result in a more lucrative organisation.
Clarrow is committed to assisting our clients in creating an inclusive workplace culture. We can help with recruitment campaigns to find the best candidates who can add to your organisations culture in a positive way. You can get in contact with us on +61 2 8320 7956.
